You can find numerous ads for different styles of wine racks in the wine magazines, such as Wine Spectator and Food & Wine, available in supermarkets and bookstores. <BR>I prefer to make my own racks, in either of two styles: bookcase-style of welded steel frames with inlaid wood shelves, or diamond bins. Both types are 3' X 5', and can hold roughly 14 cases of Bordeaux-style bottles. The diamond bins are built with plywood, and each unit has nine 12-bottle bins, nine 6-bottle bins, and two three-bottle bins. The bookcase style has six shelves and a top, and each shelf can hold about two cases. Twelve-inch pieces of 1" X 1" steel angle are used as separators on the shelves; when wedged under a bottle that is laying on its side, the angle locks it in place and keeps it from rolling (at least, in the direction of the angle). <BR>I prefer the diamond bins, because they can easily accommodate full cases, or lonely orphans, without the worry of constantly having to block bottles with pieces of angle to keep them from rolling around. The bins are a bit more tedious to make, though. And I'm a better welder than I am a carpenter.<BR>Still, the bins look nice, with their numbered tags hanging at the apex of each bin. With each rack/unit assigned a letter, and each bin/shelf location a number, they lend themselves quite readily to bookkeeping with a database. (I use Cellar for Wine Enthusiasts, by Collectware.)<BR>BTW, I came up with the 3' X 5' size based on the short stairwell and doors into my cellar; that's the largest size that can be maneuvered into position. The full-sized bins were sized by placing 12 Mosel bottles upright on a piece of cardboard, and measuring their collective footprint.

I had recalled making my diamond bins with dimensions slightly off from an even 3' X 5', so I measured them. Sure enough, they are actually 37" wide by 60" tall. The idea was to provide inside dimensions of 12" X 12" for the full-sized bins, while keeping the overall size suitable for wrestling down the stairs and through the inner and outer doors of the cellar. I used 1/2" plywood for construction, but wouldn't again. 1" X 12" boards would work much better - but the overall dimensions would need to be increased to allow for the thicker material. And the units would be much heavier. (In retrospect, I think bins 13" square would be better than 12" - 12" makes for too tight a fit for the bottles.)<P>Jackie - We're in the wrong forum for this topic. Could you move us down one on the list, to the forum on Racking? Thanks.<BR>Gil

If your only looking for a small rack, you can sometimes find them off the beaten path at specialty gadget & home stores. On the east coast, we have a couple of stores like Ikea, and Homeplace that sell smaller racks that can hold anywhere from 1 to 2 dozen wines. Also, you can get credenza-size wine cabnets without the cooling unit from places like The Oak Works. They are beautiful pieces of furniture, and hold about 30 bottles of wine. Good luck!

<IMG SRC="http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif"> Thanks for your help winecollector and Bucko, I think a rack with a cooler is a great idea for the game room!!<p>[This message has been edited by weluvwine (edited 06-28-2000).]

Hotwine, have you seen the plans for a diamond shape rack that they put in cut PVC pipe for the bottles.<BR>This arrangement might be good if you mixed types of wines so you could rotate or get at certain bottles.<BR>Chuck

No, Chuck, I haven't seen any that were made with PVC. Sounds like a good idea, though.<BR>A plywood diamond bin takes most of an entire day (for me) to cut and assemble, since the inner walls are notched for interlocking assembly without nails or glue. I like the effect, but it's a bit of work.